Touring Wheatland

You would think that the "inevitability of war" doctrine would work in favor of Buchanan's reputation:

I asked Patrick Clarke, director of James Buchanan's Wheatland, what he thought of Buchanan's being on the worst-president list. Clarke said that nobody elected in 1856 could have averted the war.

Despite the iron grip of the inevitables on Civil War historiography, Buchanan reaps no gain.

U.S. Senate considers slavery apology

At last, I can be reconciled to my fellow man, thanks to a Senate resolution:

... a formal apology to African-Americans will help bind the wounds of the Nation that are rooted in slavery and can speed racial healing and reconciliation...

ACW publishing: trending up

After an astonishingly weak first quarter, the number of Civil War titles released in April-May-June has exploded.

Prize heaven

The list of recent Savas Beatie prizes.

You've just been insulted

From Publishers Weekly:

...one wishes for more rigorous, subtle analysis ... Still, McGinty's engaging account ... will delight history buffs.

Battle Hymns

A new choral/dance work, "Battle Hymns," will use Civil War texts and premier in a working armory. Pulitzer-winning composer David Lang says,

"The Civil War was different from the Revolutionary War, which was so clearly 'us versus them.' There's something inherently introspective about the Civil War, because it's about us."

Ayers kicks off Sesquicentennial in Virginia

Interesting account of the Sesquicentennial kickoff in the Chronicle of Higher Education by a slavery historian from Yale.

For a motif in his article, David Blight (right), despite his pedigree, sophomorically grabs onto so-called "Lost Cause history" and tells how he would like to stamp out this imaginary school of thought and re-educate its purported proponents. Deleriously waving this red herring, handed to him by respected Centennialists, he completely misses the up-to-date, historiographic struggle occurring under his very nose in realtime.

Agitating against "Lost Cause" historiography invites one into a fantasy struggle against a pretend school of thought invented out of scraps of writing and speech and then built into a menace. Centennialism dresses up as Don Quixote to tilt against this windmill while its real foes line up for hard jousting.

Edward Ayers' symposium, "America on the Eve of the Civil War," did something dramatic to grab the attention of the Centennialist's inevitability-of-war advocates.

Ayers immersed attendees in his system of "deep contingency" analysis, then he enforced that system throughout the event (apparently with rigor). The "inevitables" - if any attended - had to evaluate and discuss events as contingent in origin with multiple possible outcomes. Can you imagine the discomfort of the "inevitables" at this event?

Inevitablility vs. Contingency. How do you split that difference? How do you pretend the difference does not exist?

Blight's solution was to paper over the stark differences "deep contingency" bares: let's all unite to attack the French in Mexico - er, "Lost Cause History."

Nothing to see here folks. Keep moving.

The cost of war in Missouri

To right the wrongs, 11,200 lawsuits were needed.

Prizeworthy

The prizes are accumulating at Savas-Beatie, starting with Darrell Collins' Rodes bio.

Prepare to overreach

Prepare to exhibit!

Pretentious pseudo-biblical title ready?

Check, "Illinois Stories: 'How Vast and Varied a Field' ... The Agricultural Vision of Abraham Lincoln."

Tangential and irrelevant artifacts ready?

Check, ox yoke and John Deere tractor prepared for show.

Rationale ready to explain how a farmer who abandons the land remains an agronomist?

Check, all Whigs are actually agronomists:

He recognized how technological and industrial advancements could improve agricultural productivity; how improved roads and canals and new rail lines could tie outlying markets to burgeoning cities; how national banks and a new currency system could help both farmers and businessmen.

Civil War coiffure (cont.)

Lane - again with the hair.

CWPT redesign

Civil War Preservation Trust has redesigned its website. Maps steal the show.

President honors Confederate war dead

He did not lay a wreath on the tomb of the authors of the Rebellion but on their victims' graves.

Odd that pundits struggle with such distinctions, easy as they seem to us. (Link)

They're learning how to communicate

...or they're reading this blog. Either way, it's impressive to see journalists learn how to use the right words:

Civil War Projectile Discovered in St. Mary's Landfill

Vintage Find in Landfill: A Civil War Projectile

I don't think they've mastered the difference between shot and shell yet but this is a cautious step along that monstrously steep learning curve.

Lincoln, the movie

Spielberg's movie "Lincoln" appears to be in pre-production, with full production planned for autumn; this suggests a late 2010 release date. This project crept back into the news this month with NY Senator Schumer's public request that it shoot scenes at Seward's home in Auburn.

A student newspaper says the film will be based on Goodwin's Team of Rivals, but this information is probably based on stale newspaper clippings. All stories reporting on Tony Kushner's involvement simply say he is writing the script without mentioning adaptation.

In February, it looked as though a December 2009 release was planned, then that the film was dead, then Spielberg missed a President's Day announcement deadline, then news emerged that Disney would probably make it. So this is progress.

BTW, what proportion of projects make it out of pre-production?

"Party like it's 1862"

How incongruous.

Two kinds of revision

Confederate Heritage Month in Georgia.

Larry Tagg's new Lincoln book.

Juneteenth, Roy Harris, and bicentennials new and old

Fascinating news: Roy Harris's Bicentennial symphony is being dusted off by a pick-up band for performance at a Juneteenth celebration that is endorsed by the Lincoln Bicentennial Committee.

In other words, we have a convergence of 1809, 1976, and 1865 over the bones of the eternally neglected Harris (right).

That's historical.

The ACW overseas

If you like seeing historical patterns drawn, here's one that may be overdrawn: the Pakistani "civil war" vs the US Civil War.

The Sesquicentennial Tower of Babel

A couple of interesting quotes from a story about planning for the Sesquicentennial in Georgia:

the chance to make money on tourists

actually appears in black and white and is followed by

"We're certainly not celebrating the Civil War anniversary," said Edward DuBose, the president of the State Conference of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People. "We see the Civil War and the Confederate States here as a dark spot on the history of Georgia."

Note the linkeage of the Civil War to slavery, as part of slavery not as liberation.

Confusion and ambiguity about the meaning of the observance is not resolved by the false certainty of "making money on tourists." Without firm statements of purpose coming out of state commissions, all sorts of vocal, public, personal statements interpreting the events will drown out the stated purposes of observance.

The Centennial planners failed to "grasp the nettle" - address and resolve questions of meaning. This generation of planners is repeating the mistakes made in 1959.